As community-oriented project the Dancing Cooks restaurant was meant for guests and neighbors
to make sense and use of it in their own ways. With this in mind the legacy of Dancing Cooks is best
reflected through the voices of individuals who helped shape and activate this
socio-culinary initiative in the middle of Seoksu Marketplace.

“In the beginning I was rather skeptical if the no-menu, no-money concept of
Dancing Cooks was really viable. Don't get me wrong, I really love the idea but
artists need to be able to live from what they are doing... Through this restaurant
the audience is directly engaged in the artistic experience but without any
monetary earnings it is not really sustainable in the long run. Suppose that the
food would be sold then obligations such as paying rent and obtaining
permissions become an issue. Without sponsors it seems difficult to keep this
place going. What I really dig about Dancing Cooks is how the art aspect was
hidden in this conceptual frame. There were many different ways and levels to
participate in the restaurant. The delineation between artist and audience got
wonderfully blurred. I observed that not only the initiating artist was center stage
but also some of its guests like, for example, the father who makes pizza from
scratch for the first time in his life became a main actor in this kitchen... It is great
how Dancing Cooks is putting the audience in an active position. The no-menu
idea indeed opens up a lot of room for spontaneity.”

“Behind the Dancing Cooks restaurant I recognize a lot of dedication. A
commitment to establish a warm, homey place in this market, to bring delicious,
sometimes exotic foods to the table, and to lure various people into this market
that maybe otherwise would never show up here. I see a dedicated effort to bring
out the beauty that lies in all of us when we share food together. I am glad that I
could be of practical help to this one-of-a-kind restaurant, especially during its
construction period. I regret that due to the language barrier I was not able to
communicate better with the artist.”

“I was always glad to witness the people and activities that took place in and
around Dancing Cooks. I am happy when there is life and energy coming to a
part of Seoksu marketplace that normally remains dark and vacant. It feels
reaffirming to have a neat, well-lit place right here in the back aisle of my own
eatery and where people obviously have a good time. Some of the customers
might eat at Dancing Cooks instead of my own eatery but I don't mind that since
more social activity at Seoksu market benefits us all. For a long time I wanted to
treat the foreign artist to a Korean-style breakfast but I am not sure if he would
like it since he seems to be more into Italian espresso and cereals...”

“Recently I got to know Mr. Park, the director of the Seoksu Art Project, who
introduced me to Dancing Cooks. Since then I have stopped by here several
times because I enjoyed having access to this open kitchen so close to my
house. You never know whom and what you might encounter here and what food
comes to the table. My hope is that this place can stay open and keep attracting
new people into the marketplace. I guess that this restaurant needs more time to
grow and consolidate. I wish that I spoke better English or that I could speak in
Korean with the artist who launched this project. It certainly would open up more
possibilities for bringing in an even broader audience. In any case, I felt always
welcomed here, even when I arrived empty-handed. I really like the relaxing
atmosphere with its attention to details and no obligation to consume anything.”

“The Dancing Cooks restaurant was always so busy... Almost every night I came
to check on what was happening down here since I live just a block away. And
even when nobody was around I discovered that the door to the restaurant was
open and that I easily could enter. Over the Chooseok holiday week when the
artist wasn't around, I took the liberty to bring my wife and daughter down here to
cook our little, private family dinner. It was great fun to leave our home, change
scenery and cook up our Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of the marketplace.”

“Dancing Cooks looks like a regular eatery or coffeeshop but in fact it is a fullfleshed
restaurant.”

— Ajuma and Seoksu Shop Owner (KeumSan InSam fishcake & kimchi shop)

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“I very much like the lighting of Dancing Cooks. I feel like I ought to dance when I
am eating there... Among the Stone&Water people we intent to use this space in
the future more often. For example, on October 25 is SoMinh Kang's birthday
coming up and we want to surprise her with a party at Dancing Cooks. At one
point Mr. Park — who declared himself as new owner of Dancing Cooks — told us
that he wanted to make a noodle restaurant out of the restaurant... The other day
while we made lunch at Dancing Cooks many people passing the shop asked us
'where is the foreign chef today?' ”

“We visited DANCING COOKS over the weekend and baked onion pie for lunch. In the evening, we made with our grandmom and other guests a family style pizza together. The food was delicious indeed and very fun to make. If this art festival will be held again in the future we will certainly go again. It was truly fun.”

— HyoCheng & HyoIm LEE(sisters and guest cooks on September 26, 2010)

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Seoksu Art Project 2010 The Dancing Cooks restaurant was part of the Seoksu Art Project (SAP) 2010 and Anyang Public Art Project (APAP) 2010. Behind SAP stands the Supplement Space Stone&Water, a nonprofit arts platform that promotes experimental projects and residencies in and around the Seoksu Market in Anyang, South Korea, where art and life meet. Since 2007, SAP is hosting an international residency program that immerses guest artists in the local community of this traditional marketplace that is economically in decline. SAP’s goal is to transform transform idle spaces into creative opportunities
where citizens and artists envision and experience alternative ways of cohabitation.

Anyang Public Art Project 2010 — Responding to “Cities Temporary, Society Nomadic”Anyang Public Art Project (APAP) was an inquiry into the idea of new community that could sustain and advance within the ephemeral conditions of the contemporary Korean city. The volatile situation of Seoksu Marketplace is due to a gigantic high-rise appartment complex project that suspends the future and prosperity of the entire Seoksu-dong and Manan-gu area. This predominant urban redevelopment process in Korean cities is violent and often a total erasure of the past on behalf of the new. The result is a highly fragmented and largely homogenized urban landscape — mostly parceled into rather unattractive and virtually identical hi-rise apartment buildings. With most existing urban structures and systems economically relevant for no more than 20 years, cities are becoming patchworks of tabula rasa to be redeveloped over and over again. Capitalism moves and so do Koreans. Ingreasingly Koreans are becoming a society of floating populations, physically disconnected from the land, constantly moving from one place to another. Korean society seems to be nomadic again. APAP 2010 was grounded on the idea of Public Culture, a practice of art as a multi-disciplinary, research-based and process-oriented collaboration with the public and its various cultures.
where citizens and artists envision and experience alternative ways of cohabitation.